Temporary Primary Frequency Control Support by Variable Speed Wind Turbines— Potential and Applications

TLDR

Short‑term excess active power from a wind farm can counteract the opposite initial surge of a hydro turbine, improving the system temporary minimum frequency. The study quantifies the short‑term excess active power capability of a commercial multi‑megawatt variable‑speed wind turbine and explores its application in hydro‑dominated systems. A delay model of the hydro system was developed and used alongside a detailed model to calculate and validate TMF improvements. The wind turbine can deliver 0.1 pu extra active power for 10 s—twice Hydro‑Quebec’s requirement—and the TMF improvements predicted by the models agree well.

Abstract

This paper quantifies the capability of providing a short-term excess active power support of a commercial multi-megawatt variable speed wind turbine (VSWT) and generalizes the findings by considering different wind turbine (WT) physical parameters in a wider range from the example case. The paper also identifies some possible applications of it, in particular, in a hydro dominated system. To be able to quantify the system characteristic, a delay model of the studied hydro system is developed. Due to the fact that the initial power surge of a hydro turbine is opposite to that desired, the short-term extra active power support from a wind farm (WF) could be beneficial for a hydro dominated system in arresting the initial frequency fall, which corresponds to an improvement in the system temporary minimum frequency (TMF). The improvements in the TMF are calculated by using both the developed delay model and a detailed model, and the results show good agreement. It is shown that the WT under consideration can provide a 0.1 pu extra active power support for 10 s quite easily which is twice the Hydro-Quebec requirement.